 Alright, so Judges chapter 14 tells the story of Samson and his wedding or his marriage or his meeting, his wife. So we see in Judges chapter 14 this story that ends in sort of disaster and I want to look at that story this morning and see what we can learn from this and sample that the Bible gives us. So look down if you would at Judges 14 and verse number one, just keep your place there. We're going to be there and Judges 13 for a little while in the introduction. The Bible says, and Samson went down to Timnath and saw a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. So he went to the Philistines to see, to meet this woman and he came up and told his father and mother and said, I've seen a woman in Timnath of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me to wife. Then his father and his mother said unto him, Is there never a woman among the daughters of thy brethren, or among all my people, That thou goest and take the wife of an uncircumcised Philistines. And Samson said unto his father, Get her for me, so she, for she pleaseth me well. But his father and mother knew not that it was of the Lord that he sought on occasion against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel. Then went Samson down with his father and his father and mother to Timnath and came to the vineyards of Timnath and behold a young lion roared against him. And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him and he rent him as he would have rent a kid. And he had nothing in his hand but he told not his father or mother what he had done. Turn to Judges 13. So here we see that Samson is going over to the Philistines. He meets this gal that he wants to marry. He tells his parents hey I want to marry this Philistine and this Philistine woman and they're like can't you find somebody amongst our own people? They weren't supposed to marry people of the Canaanites and the people of the land. They were not supposed to do that. And then on top of that Samson goes wandering around the vineyards and a lion attacks him and he kills this lion with his bare hands. Go back to Judges 13 and look at verse number 7. This is the angel talking to Samson's mother before he's even born talking about what type of man that Samson is to be and the vow you know the type of person that he's supposed to be. And the Bible says in verse number 7 of Judges 13 the angel says but he said unto me behold thou shalt conceive and bear a son and now drink no wine nor strong drink neither eat any unclean thing for the child shall be a Nazarite to God from the womb to the day of his death. So basically the Nazarite vow in the Bible where they're never supposed to cut their hair and they're never supposed to you know drink any kind of alcoholic beverage is basically the way that Samson is to be his whole life. The Bible says that's what the angel tells his mother. Look at now turn to Deuteronomy chapter 20. Deuteronomy chapter 20. So we see Samson doing some things here in Judges 14 that are suspect and I'm going to explain that to you here in a little bit but go to Deuteronomy chapter 20 and look at verse number 16. Now there's a lot of Bible on this. We'll just look at one example in Deuteronomy chapter 20 in verse number 16 where the Bible says giving you know direction to the children of Israel on what they are supposed to do when they come to take the land. They finally cross the Jordan River. They're coming to take possession of the land. Look there was people there. I mean there was people living in that land. You know Jericho was the first place they went. But look at Deuteronomy chapter 20 verse number 16. It says, So look the story is they go into the promised land with Joshua and they fight and they follow these rules at first. They're wiping everybody out and they're not to have anything to do with these people. They're supposed to just completely destroy, utterly destroy these people. Look that's the orders that God gave to the children of Israel period. Whether you like it or not that's the orders. Now the Philistines who could be considered Canaanites they live in the south of the Canaan land. They're a perfect example of what happened to the children of Israel when they stopped following this rule. When they stopped following what God said that they should do. Whether it be you know utterly destroying them or you know marrying them or intermingling with them and accepting their culture into them. Look the Philistines historically there's a lot written on the Philistines actually. It's where the word Palestine today comes from, from the Philistines. But look they were considered a warmongering people. They were very tough, you see that in the Bible. They were known for their use of iron weapons, things like that. They were very powerful warmongering people. As a matter of fact the children of Israel actually relied on the Philistines to you know make and sharpen their weapons for a while there. That was a mistake to do that. But they were also known for a culture of alcohol. A culture of drinking and these weak long feasts. This is known throughout secular history. They were big into vineyards and brewing alcohol and making alcohol. So here is Sampson. The point I'm trying to get at here is here is Sampson. A Nazarite from birth and he's just hanging around the Philistines. Number one. And he's meeting people he shouldn't meet. Now God obviously had a plan for this. But he's a Nazarite from birth and then he's just, you know, he's wandering through their vineyards. I mean what was he doing in the vineyards? Meeting their women, you know. Look, do you ever wonder why he gets attacked? I mean think about this. You get attacked by a lion and you kill the lion with your bare hands. I mean now that's extraordinary. Wouldn't you say that that's an extraordinary thing that happened to you? I mean look, if I kill a lion with my bare hands, I'm telling people about it. I mean like right away. I'm taking pictures. I mean I don't like group texts but that's going in a group text. Look what I've done. You know, so look, he doesn't tell anybody. Why? Because he was somewhere he shouldn't have been. He was wandering through the vineyards. He was something like, you ever have something, you know, crazy happen to you and you were in a place where you shouldn't have been? And you're just like, we can't tell anybody about this. Because you were in a place that you shouldn't have been. And that's why he didn't, the Bible specifically says that, you know, he didn't tell anybody about the lion. He didn't tell his mother and father about the lion. So look, meet Samson. He's walking along this cliff of, you know, just toying with sin in his life. Just toying, you know, I suppose he had just had this reckless and careless attitude towards sin in his life and towards things that he should not even have been near in his life. And look, it defined his life. I mean just think about just this one story. You know, because I suppose, you know, I suppose Samson, I suppose he thought he was strong enough. I suppose he thought, you know, I can handle it. I'm strong enough. But look, we see what happened, you know, just in this beginning story of Samson's life. He was not taking it seriously. He was not taking sin seriously. So this morning, I want to talk about making light of sin. I want to talk about making light of sin. Look, sin, as we all know, is all around us. It's all around us. We're going to see it. We're going to hear it in our lives. But we never need to get used to it. We never need to make light of it. You know, Samson, you know, he was just brushing past it like it was nothing. And we can see it escalate in his life. Look, it ended up escalating these small things that he probably, you know, I never said he drank anything out of the vineyard. It never said that, you know, he partook in that. But look, these things that he was toying with escalated and escalated into things like murder. I mean, even in this one story, he was gambling with a bunch of drunks and he ends up murdering all of them. And then, look, on top of that, he lost his wife. I mean, this woman that he said that he wanted, you know, so much and that this is the woman that I want to be my wife to his parents, he ends up losing his wife over, you know, stupid things that he's messing around with. Right? And look, finally, I mean, look, it ultimately led to his own death. Samson's, you know, just toying and dabbling too close to sin. So I want to talk about, you know, how we cannot make the same mistakes. How we cannot make light of sin in our lives. Now look, this sin is everywhere. It's everywhere around us. Before I even get into the sermon, I want to talk about, you know, desensitization to sin in general. It's a huge problem. I just took, like, I just picked a few that apply today, but these could all obviously be sermons on themselves. But look, this is something that most people overlook in their life and they don't take it as seriously as they should. Just desensitization to sin. Let me just give you a few examples. I mean, violence. Think about violence today. Well, I mean, look, there's been a lot of complicated research on violence and the way, you know, violence is portrayed to people. Let me just read you a short paragraph on some of this research that's been done on violence in our society and exposure to violence and its effects. So look, here's an abstract from a paper. So some, here's how abstracts work. So some professor or some engineer, somebody who's studied something for decades, they'll write a white paper that's a long, complicated paper and the abstract is just like a, it's like a summary of the paper. So let me read you an abstract of this paper. It says, research on exposure to television and movie violence suggests that playing violent video games will increase aggressive behavior. Meteorological review of the video game research literature reveals that violent video games increase aggressive behavior in children and young adults. Experiment and non-experimental studies with males and females in laboratory and field settings support this conclusion. Analyses also reveal that exposure to violent video games increases physiological arousal and aggression-related thoughts and feelings. Playing violent video games also decreases pro-social behavior. Look, there is dozens and dozens and dozens, probably hundreds of studies that say the same thing. Okay, but here's the translation. And most of you were probably chuckling in your head when I read that. But here's the translation. Consuming and watching violent antisocial things and behavior will make you violent and antisocial. I mean, it's not rocket science, right? So, I mean, that's just one thing. How about another one? Perversion in general. Or unnatural behavior. Let me give you an example. Because look, let me give you an example of how this is desensitized our culture today. In just the last maybe 10 or 15 years. And I'm going to bring up same-sex marriage. But look, I hate that term. Because look, it's a trick that was pulled on Christians and they all fell for it. Because here's the thing, there is no same-sex marriage. It doesn't exist. We're talking about something that doesn't exist. It's not real. But by introducing this debate on same-sex marriage, it forced the Christian to basically move to that line. Hey, am I for that or against it? Look, I have no opinion because it's not real. It doesn't exist. But the Christian went, oh, I'm against it. And you know, oh, we're for it. And then pretty soon everyone's just for it. But it doesn't exist. It's not real. Marriage is defined by God. There is no, it's like saying, you know, an eight-legged elephant or something. It doesn't exist. It's not real. It's not something that's real. So look, in Pew Research, polling in 2004, Americans opposed same-sex marriage by a margin of 60% to 31%. I mean, that's a big margin if you're familiar with polling. I mean, you'll never get a presidential election to be that different, right? So look, it says support for same-sex marriage has steadily grown over the past 15 years. And today it's actually exactly opposite. Americans, a majority of Americans, 61% support same-sex marriage while 31% oppose it. So just in 15 years, just, I mean, I'm just using that poll just to show you where this whole thing has gone. So not only did we agree that it exists, now most people are for it. You see how it works? When you start moving this way, you just never stop moving that way. But look, you say, how did this happen? How could it have happened? Well, look, it's easy. It's constant media exposure. It's constant media exposure. It's desensitization and propaganda. That's what it is, right? You just put a homosexual character on every single TV show and you make them the funniest one. You make them the one that everybody likes. You make them, you know, the one that has the most friends and the ones that people would like to, you know, just the most positive one. But look, you've met these people soul-witting. Is that who they are? I met one last week. I didn't even say a word. Some 18-year-old kid. You could tell that, you know, he's a homo and he's standing in front of this house and I didn't even say a word. I just went up to put an invitation in the gate. He's like, get out of here. We don't want that stuff here. He's following us around on his bike. He's like, he's all crazy. I didn't even say a word to him. Like, that's who they are. So look, here's the thing. Why would anyone watch TV? I mean, it's all lies and propaganda, but it has changed everyone in this country. I mean, propaganda works. And it'll work on you. And it'll work on your family. So look, here's another one. Fornication. Same effects here. Media, media, media. Fornication is the norm on TV, movies, whatever. Every single TV show. I mean, you could go and you could look up on the most popular sitcoms or whatever they are and they'll just have dozens and dozens and dozens over the course of that TV show of fornicating partners. And it's just normalized. It's just normal. I mean, the goal is to normalize it in society and look, it's working. It's working. Cohabitation, living with an unmarried man or woman is at an all-time high in the United States. People, you know, marriage is at an all-time low in the United States. Unwed mothers, people actually having children out of wedlock, I mean, on purpose now, is at an all-time high. I mean, you look at all these graphs and it's just like this. I mean, there's no bumps. I mean, it's just like this is where we're going. Look, it's working. It's just hockey stick graph after hockey stick graph after hockey stick graph. It's all being pushed and we're all being desensitized by it because it's being just thrown in our face. Pornography. You're like, what? Yeah, I'm going to bring it up. Pornography. Look, people are getting desensitized to this today. It's not even something that people think is a shameful thing anymore. Here's some stats for you there. Only 23% of adults have rules on what their kids can do on the internet. That means 77% of kids have unlimited access to the internet. Yeah, hang your head, that's bad. And that's why 93% of boys and 62% of girls will be exposed to pornography by age 11. What is this happening, you say? Well, send them to public school. That's how it's happening. You will end up with a child with no education who is addicted to pornography. Like almost guaranteed. How could you possibly protect them from that if they're in that environment? I mean, how can Christians even think for even a second on sending their kids to public school? I mean, this isn't a sermon on public school, but I mean, what in the world? It's a deal breaker. I mean, you will lose them, especially with this kind of stuff now. It's funny, my wife was telling me now all the kids are doing Zoom meetings for school. And the parents, here's a funny thing. The parents, she read that the parents have to sign a waiver that says that they will not listen in on the classes, on the Zoom meetings with their kids. What? The parents have to sign a waiver that says if your child is going to participate in public school Zoom meetings, you cannot listen in. What are you saying to my kids? That would be the first question that I ask. Well, this is a history class or this is a math class. Why do I have to sign something that says I can't listen in? What are you saying? Yet everyone's sending their kids here. I mean, what has happened? Do you know that your brain is like a recorder that has unlimited capacity? You know that with all the science and all the engineering, we have still not, we still don't understand the capacity of the human brain. Do you know that? Do you know that every single thing that you see is recorded forever? Every single thing that you hear is recorded forever. That's why you can remember a song from when you were 10 years old. I mean, I can read you statistics all day long on how staying pure before marriage and avoiding all this pornography will save your literal physical life. I could read you stats all day long on that. How it will secure your future marriage. Or, here's another good one that probably most young people aren't thinking about, how it will dictate who you marry. You say, what? It'll dictate who I marry? Here's the thing, and maybe you've heard me say this before but I'm going to say it again, marriage is a business deal. Whether you like it or not, whether you like this analogy or not, marriage, turn to Luke chapter 8. Marriage is a business deal. Two people come to the table and they say, here's what I have to offer. And the other person says, here's what I have to offer. And they make a deal. If the one person likes what the other person has to offer and they both agree that hey, what you have to offer and what I have to offer, that's a good deal. They get married. It's a business deal. You say, yeah, but especially guys, right? Guys are like, yeah, but most of my problems are hidden and people don't see most of my problems. Turn to Luke chapter 8. The guy's like, I look pretty good on the surface. Look at Luke chapter 8 and verse 17. The Bible says, for nothing is secret that shall not be made manifest, neither anything hid that shall not be known and come abroad. Oh boy, how many times in my life do I need to see this verse come true? I've seen this verse come true for Christians. I can't even count all the times that this verse has come true. The bottom line is, look, if you're into these sins or whatever, you're not only sinning, you're sinning against your future spouse, but it could literally dictate who you get married to or who you don't get married to. I mean, do you know that you have to sell yourself? You know that you have to convince, guys and gals, you have to convince someone to marry you. Do you know that? I mean, look, you're like, oh yeah, but I'm gonna be in charge of my marriage. Look, you're not in charge yet, buddy. I mean, she gets a choice whether she wants to hook her wagon to your messed up horse. You know, when you get married, you're in charge, but you gotta get somebody to sign on the dotted line first. And look, in the circles that we run in, folks, I mean, money doesn't mean much. Look, I mean, that's the business deal for some people, right? Out in the world, it's still a business deal out in the world. She's good-looking and he's rich, business deal. They get married for six months or whatever. But I mean, the point is, it's a business deal. Even in the Christian life, we just value different things. So look, in our circles, money doesn't mean much, but outside, you know, the outside of the cup, you know, probably matters, but the inside matters more in the circles that we run in. You know, so if people were just totally honest, just imagine this world, right? Some guy, right? He's just totally honest. He's a totally honest guy. Dream girl walks in the door, right? And he's like, hey, I'm addicted to pornography. Wanna get married? No, no deal. No deal. He's like, hey, I'm gonna ruin your life and the life of our children because I'm a fornicating drunk. Wanna get married? You wanna sign? But I'm a really hard worker. No deal. Some gal. Some gal. Dream guy walks in the door. She's like, well, I'll use King James terms here. Well, you know, I've been living the life of a harlot for the last several years. You know, I've lived with several other guys and I've just been in fornication. Wanna get married? No deal. That's what's gonna happen. I've seen this happen. I've seen this happen recently. I've seen this happen. Look, I'm not getting down on people. Don't get me wrong. We're gonna talk about this tonight. I'm not getting down on people for past sins, but it's best not to go down these roads. That's why I'm talking to the young people here. Look, it will diminish what you bring to the table. You need to stay away from these things. Far away from these things. That's why the Bible says, flee fornication. It doesn't say, hey, just kinda stay away from it. Just don't do what your friends are doing. It says, run the other way. It says, stay far away. Don't walk down these lines. Look at this morning's sermon. Turn to Romans chapter 7. Here's the opposite of desensitization right here. Look at Romans chapter 7 in verse number 13. I love this verse in the Bible. People should read it more. Romans chapter 7 in verse number 13. Paul is talking about the law. And what's the point of the law? Is the law just to beat us into the ground? Is the law there so we can read it and it can just beat us into the ground? He's like, look, you're not saved. You're not saved by the law. You're not saved by the law. You can't do all the law. He's like, I got this war of my flesh and I keep doing these things that I don't want to do. But my spirit inside me wants to do this. My flesh wants to do this. He's like, but I'm saved through grace. So what's the point of the law? Just to beat me into the ground every single day? No, the point of the law is this. Look at verse 13. Was then that which is good made death unto me? Was there just to kill you and just to make you you know, worthly says God forbid but sin that it might appear sin working death in me that by which is good that sin by the commandment might become exceedingly sinful. That's the point of the law. It makes sin pop out. It makes sin exceedingly sinful to you. So if you're getting desensitized to sin you need the law. You need more of the law. You need more of the Bible. You need more preaching. Then sin will seem exceedingly sinful. Look, Satan wants sin not to appear like sin. That's what he wants. That's why you'll have these feelings sometimes. Oh, it's not that bad. You ever have those feelings? Yeah, but you know you go to church and they're just like it's just like crazy town there you know, against sin but everywhere it's not that bad. It's not that bad. Everybody's doing it. The cliche. Somebody that sees that you call sin what it is people will say, wow, you're extreme. Or they'll say, oh man you're legalistic. People that just have no clue. Or these parents that teach this weird stupid idea that you need to expose your kids to some sin. Have you ever heard this one? Yeah. Hey, you can't just keep them from everything or when they leave your house you're so crazy. I mean, look, no you have to properly keep sin exceedingly sinful, period. So all that to say this that was all introduction. All that to say this all these outside forces that are trying to desensitize us that are trying to change us that are trying to subconsciously convince us that sin is not as bad as it really is. You know, Samson, he got close he walked by the vineyard. He could, you know, he was strong enough he could smell the the vines, he could smell the grapes he got close. Look, you're going to go meet people that you shouldn't even be anywhere near? Look, here's the thing out of all the things that we just talked about you will never see the consequences of sin from all those media sources. Media in general, I mean think about it the violence, the fornication the perversion there's no consequences on those funny shows there's no consequence look, it's all a lie it's all a lie why would you bring that in to yourself, just this lie look, all the all stupid dramas even on the internet most of the time it's not the way it seems just so you know it's all a lie what is on TV and the media that you are consuming is not true reality TV is not real you're like, what? it's not real it's all fake so look, here's the first point and we've already talked about it but look turn to Genesis chapter 3 sin needs to be kept exceedingly sinful because Satan is actually pushing in the exact opposite direction sin needs to be kept exceedingly sinful look at Genesis chapter 3 in Genesis chapter 3 in verse number 1 so this is Satan talking to Eve and the Bible says this the Bible says now the serpent was more subtle so Satan is very subtle first of all you're never going to come out and just shock you with something that you know to be wrong he's just going to try to just inch his way in and just slowly desensitize you that's why it took 15 years for that pole to change the way it was because look it was subtle it was subtle, it was slow but it was persistent now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said to the woman, yea hath God said ye shall not eat out of every tree of the garden look the devil's plan is to make light of sin and have you question what the Bible says the devil's plan is to say you know what, is it really that bad you know you've all had those thoughts when it comes to sins is it really that bad is it really going to be as bad as the Bible is saying everybody's doing it like one of the main points of the law we just saw from Romans chapter 7 was to just fight that exact Genesis 3 methodology that the devil brought in and says yes it is that bad it's exceedingly bad that's how bad it is so here's some pragmatic approaches I'm going to give you this morning I'm going to give you some pragmatic approaches to keeping sin serious and exceedingly sinful in your life in this church we need to keep sin exceedingly sinful in your life and in this church turn to Ephesians chapter 5 the first thing is this in your speech you need to keep sin exceedingly sinful in your speech did you know that there's some things that shouldn't even be spoken of did you know that there's some things that should not even be spoken of I think we're losing this as Christians today look at Ephesians chapter 5 in verse number 6 that says let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things come at the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience be not ye therefore partakers with them so it doesn't matter what other people are saying if they're wrong words you shouldn't be partaking with them for if you were sometimes for ye were sometimes darkness but now you're in the light of the Lord walk as children of light so look it doesn't matter how you used to talk look I don't care how you used to talk I could care less how you used to talk the Bible's telling you how you should talk now it doesn't matter what you used to say who you hang out with and what they used to say and what you used to partake of look it's talking about what we should say now for you were sometimes darkness but now you're in the light of the Lord now you're saved you're in a good church with with subpar preaching but you know it's telling you how you should move forward walk as children of light for the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth proving what is acceptable unto the Lord and have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness but rather reprove them for it is a shame to even speak of those things which are done of them in secret certain sins should not even be spoke of the Bible says the things done in darkness the unnatural things the Bible would call them should not even be spoken of speaking of it in light ways making jokes of it don't do it it's not even supposed to be spoken of much less made light of turn to Proverbs chapter 14 jokes in general look jokes in general about sin in general let's see what the Bible says about that as far as your speech goes what do jokes about sin do what's the purpose about joking about sin even if it's somebody else's sin just joking about sin in general look at Proverbs 14 verse 9 the Bible says fools make a mock at sin it's your verse of the week righteous there is favor look it makes sin less serious if you're making a joke about it even if it's somebody else's sin and you're joking about it it makes it less serious and it makes you a fool God says turn to 2 Peter chapter 2 and it can hurt other people did you know that it can hurt your Christian brothers and sisters to even make jokes about sin look at 1 Peter 2 look at verse number 7 this is talking about Lot who decided to go and live in a place where he shouldn't have been living and it talks about what the angels did and they delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy what the filthy conversation of the wicked Lot was vexed by the conversations that he heard the Bible says that being around filthy conversations will change you and it will so if you cannot avoid those types of conversations you need to change something and you need to be able to remove yourself if you're out in the world men and you're in situations where there's filthy conversation going on you need to get out of those situations and you're like well I just can't well you need to figure out there is a way to do it figure out that way no matter how uncomfortable it is somebody says a filthy joke oh it's uncomfortable if I don't chuckle no you don't chuckle you're trying to send a message because look if you send messages to people they will get it and it will stop happening turn to robins 14 but look here's a bigger one making light of sins especially verbally through joking whatever it can cause people to stumble in verse 14 of verse number 21 the bible says it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine or anything whereby thy brother stumble with or is offended or is made weak hast thou faith have it thyself before God happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth so look the bible is saying here in verse number 21 that you know do you know that your sins that you struggle with is that other people struggle with you know something that may be a joke to you somebody might really be struggling with even in the church so if you're joking or whatever about sin or making light of something that could actually cause somebody to stumble I mean it's serious so look making sins less sinful could cause somebody to fall into one of those sins your problems are not other people's problems try to remember that you know people struggle with things and they might not be the same things that you struggle with so just don't ever joke about sin how's that how's that for just a rule in your life here's another point turn to Galatians chapter 6 and I don't know why but people forget this one all the time I mean I'm going to say it and you guys are going to all be like amen that's true but people forget all the time I watch people all the time I'm like don't they know this I'm like don't they realize this I'm like this is not I mean this is Christianity like you know 101 maybe 108 or something but it's in the first it's in the first classes of Christianity and that's this the consequences of sin are real why don't people remember this look at Galatians chapter 6 and verse number 7 I don't know how many times I need to see this come true Galatians chapter 6 and verse number 7 be not deceived God is not mocked all you want but God's not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he reap look turn to Luke 12 if you are sinning as a Christian you will pay like 100% you will pay you say how much how much will I pay well let's take a look at it look at Luke chapter 7 Luke chapter 12 I'm sorry you say well you know I'll just sin for a while and then you know I'll get back I'll just get back into it I'll just have a little bit of fun for a while and then I'll just get back into church and back into life and all this look at Luke 12 and verse 47 here's what you miss here's what everybody misses I don't think that people don't think that there's consequences maybe that's not what they forget maybe they forget this one Luke 12 and verse 47 says and that servant which knew his Lord's will and prepared not himself neither did according to his will shall be beaten with many stripes that's you just so you know that's the downside of being in this church so look at the second verse but he that knew not and did commit things worthy of stripes shall be beaten with few stripes that goes to fun city church okay there's the advantage right there I shouldn't tell you this but that's the advantage go to fun city party church and you won't know stuff you won't know anything so you'll be beaten with few stripes but you you're gonna be beaten you're gonna be beaten with many stripes because you know because I'm telling you and I'm telling you grab a Bible reading chart and read your Bible every year and then you're gonna know more and then you're gonna know more and you're gonna listen to more preaching you're gonna know more and then when you're like you know I know this is wrong but I'm gonna do it anyway you're gonna be beaten into the ground and your kids are gonna be beaten into the ground you're like what that's the one that people aren't ready for that happens I'll have some fun for a while everybody's gonna suffer from what you do when you know what you shouldn't be doing you'll be beaten with many stripes and the consequences but it's been said pastors said it many times sin will take you farther than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you have to pay or want to pay but usually you know it's more than you have to pay you'll do damage that you did not intend to do sometimes you're I mean sometimes irreparable damage sometimes irreparable damage we'll talk about that a little bit tonight but look I feel bad for these people I feel bad for these people because I'm not old but I'm old enough to have seen some people raise their kids raise their families do things the wrong way and have things turn out certain ways save people and I've seen the consequences that people have paid and are paying and I guarantee you a thousand percent of those people would like to go back in time and change things but you can't you can't more than they ever would have offered to pay ever at all so I mean I feel bad for these people they're just willingly sinning against the Lord they're just like I'm not going to take sin seriously I know I should but I'm just not going to because the price they're just stacking up the price that they're going to have to pay and it's going to be way more than than they have to pay so look sin will destroy you as a Christian but everybody does it right sin is normalized today everybody does it like fornication I mean it's just common to hear about people living together today I mean is anyone shocked when they hear about somebody in the world who's living with someone that they're not married to is it even shocking anymore when you hear about that even I mean here's another one this one still shocks me I'm sorry but people having children together with somebody they're not they're not married to like on purpose I mean look should you say congratulations to somebody who had a child out of wedlock nope why why would you do that you're making that sin less sinful you're saying you know what I condone that you're like I condone what you've done I had a guy that I worked with several years ago he lived with I mean super nice guy he lived with this gal I tried to talk to him about a few times about things you know but like he had a child with this gal that he lived with and he had been married once or twice before had this child and everyone was like oh congratulations I never said congratulations one time he was mad at me for it but I mean I'm not going to condone that I'm not going to say like from me personally because look my integrity is mine sorry I get to dish out I mean I get to dish out what I approve and what I don't approve of by my own silence whenever I want and silence look silence speaks volumes at times but look here's the thing everybody doesn't get away with it turn to Hebrews chapter 12 everybody doesn't get away with it first of all not everybody is doing it and everybody most people might but everybody doesn't get away with it the bible says in Hebrews 12 6 look the rules are different for you the rules are different for you so the world may tell you this that everybody is doing it and they may be right that the majority of people are doing it but you're not going to get away with it it's not fair for them to say that to you because you're operating under different rules because your heavenly father is going to chastise you but not the unbeliever they're going to pay in hell that's why so many people are out there doing all these things and you say like it doesn't seem like anything ever happens to them and then you go try it you're going to get crushed teenagers young people that I just kept popping into my head when I was writing this sermon look here's the thing and here's the thing that you need to understand as a young person not even just teenagers anybody who's young unmarried whatever the decisions that you make now it is more important for you to get things right than the 60 year old man you say why you say because the decisions that you make now young person will multiply themselves the whole life I mean you young people you need to never get used to hard preaching you need to never get yourself to this point where you're just like oh that's entertaining these hard messages you need to take I'm actually helping you try to not ruin your life the 60 year old the 60 year old guy that is married he's raised some kids and then he just starts drinking you know that's bad okay but look his kids are raised he's had a career maybe he's retired or about to retire look you make these kind of decisions when you're young you might not ever get married you make these decisions to get into all kinds of perversion and sin and it might mean that you might never get married it might mean that you never have a career it might mean you could never ever support a family or raise children properly I mean look it's more important for you because the decision every single decision that you make is going to be multiplied exponentially on how your life turns out do you think about that as a young person as a young father as a young unmarried person look 1st Corinthians 522 says abstain from all appearance of evil remember when I talked to you the other day look example your phone 77% of all phones are unmonitored if I was a young person I wouldn't be walking around showing stuff on my phone to people where a bunch of people could see me doing that because guess what parents and other people are like what are they looking at over there we're not stupid look you're like oh but it's just it was pictures of the hike I don't care it could appear evil to somebody I would be careful look you make your own decisions but I would be careful about what I do and how it appears to people I mean especially you know I mean just don't ever walk up to my daughter and show her anything on your phone ever just write that one down I hate when people do that to me I hate it so much nobody at work even does it anymore because guess what I got my recorders here and I can't control it you just slam it in front of my face so I don't want to see it I don't want to see some stupid off-color meme or whatever because I can't unsee it and I don't want to be seen seeing it I don't know I wouldn't even bring my phone in the church if I was a teenager look it's not a rule it's an opinion it can appear evil we had a conversation the other day a brief one that I was involved in about non-alcoholic beverages let me give you my opinion on this one first of all let me just tell you about non-alcoholic beverages here's what non-alcoholic beverages are it's a pit stop for an alcoholic before he starts drinking again that's what it is if you want to quit drinking here's what you do you purpose in your heart like Daniel I'm never drinking again ever done and then you stay away from people that drink you stay away from alcohol you stay away from anywhere that has alcohol you stay away from all that stuff you flee from it you don't be like oh you know what I'm going to go to the party and I'll have a non-alcoholic drink I mean who would want to hang around a bunch of people drinking anyway I mean look any time I've ever seen that it's just like the next time you see them they're always drinking anyways it's crazy it's dumb it's a wrong headed approach the bible says don't even look at it so look but here's the thing you want my opinion don't ever bring it here that's a rule don't ever bring it here because you know what comes out of it and you know what came out of it look I'm not mad about it I'm just joking joking about drunkenness not funny a bunch of teenagers joking about drunkenness not funny and not ever going to happen here watch your mouth in this church watch what you talk about and don't joke about sin look people can be struggling with it what are you doing avoid the appearance of evil you're like man you're extreme it's not even alcohol go to your house and and have a bunch of non-alcoholic beers or drinks in your fridge and raise your family like that see me in 15 years let me know how that goes avoid the appearance of evil and look here's another thing as we're talking about things to talk about in the church look don't joke about your past lives here don't get into these let's see who has the craziest sin story no not in church you shouldn't do it anywhere because it's not funny and you're making light of it look no one's upset at you if you had a past of things and look I wasn't saved my whole life but you need to understand it's serious and it's sin and it's forward facing moving forward now that's where we're at in the hung-up series how to move forward it's not about looking back but look don't make light of what's back there my wife read a book the other day and it's his guy's just making he's supposedly saved now but he's making light and he's spending just chapters and chapters and chapters in this book talking about just like glorying and all the sin that he used to do something's wrong there something's wrong there don't make light of it you cause somebody to stumble you'll cause yourself to stumble it's not funny thank God that we are all here okay thank God that we are all here but think of the next generation think of the next generation you know it's better that they never go down these roads and you know it as well as I do it's better that they never travel down that road period some of these roads look at Samson's road they end in disaster these roads so let's keep sin exceedingly sinful in our lives and in the church okay let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer